The Legacy of the Silver Shadow
by BackStroke
Summary: The line that was thought to be broken shall be remade and the hidden heir shall be revealed to reclaim a long forgotten legacy. *First attempt to write a fanfiction story. Rated M for future events.*


Disclaimer: I. Do. Not. Own. Naruto. Period.

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**~The Legacy of the Silver Shadow~**

Chapter One - Prelude

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Deep within a secluded cave in an almost forgotten island, the sealed doors of an old vault were glowing red as ancient seals reactivated after being dormant for so many years. And then, a low grumbling disturbed the stillness of the cave as the lumbering doors gradually began to open. For a few minutes the dragging sound continued, until everything ground to a stop.

Then, a natural calmness slowly permeated the air.

From within the shadowy confines of the now unsealed vault emerged a fairly tall, fair-skinned, young male. He had sapphire blue eyes, waist-length spiky red hair tied in a pony-tail and jaw-length bangs framing either side of his face.

Stopping just outside the parted doors, he looked around the cave and stretched, - 'Ah, it's good to be back.' – feeling the pull of his muscles as his body began to recover from its rigid state. Satisfied after five minutes of spontaneous work out, he started to walk towards the mouth of the cave.

The attire he was wearing took the form of the standard shinobi dress during the Warring States Period, consisting of shiny silver traditional armour that were decorated by red flames-like motifs on the edges worn over a long-sleeved black outfit with a distinctive shiny silver fur collar, as well as a pair of black pants and sandals.

His armour - similar to that of samurai - was constructed from numerous metal plates that formed into multiple protective guards along his body, in particular: chest, shoulders, waist, thighs and forearms. His shoulder guards and chest plate bore a three-dimensional spiral, like a whirlpool or vortex while the kanji for "Silver Shadow" was emblazoned vertically down the back.

'I wonder what year it is right now.' - he mused as he reached the entrance.

Looking up, he noticed that the sun was already starting to set. Moving towards the slowly darkening forest, - 'Time to see what those fools have done until now.' - he thought as he leapt and disappeared into the shadow of a nearby tree.

He was greeted by the sight of utter destruction as soon as he emerged from the shadow on top of a tall tree, five miles away. Desolated infrastructures of what seemed to be a large village littered the whole landscape.

'So this is what became of Uzushio.'

The redheaded young male disappeared back into the shadows before emerging out of another shadow in the middle of the ruined village.

As he continued his close inspection of the rubbles, he spotted a group of dried up carcasses. Moving in for a closer look, he stepped on a piece of metal covered in soot.

Wiping away the dirt on what had been part of a hitai-ate revealed a symbol, - 'Kiri' - of the Village Hidden by Mist.

Further inspection of the ruins turned up three more forehead protectors - 'Swarmed by two Great Villages and two minor villages, one of which is the Jashinist Yugakure.' - bearing the symbols for the Villages Hidden by Clouds, Frost and Hot Water.

'Interesting.'

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It was a new day and eight-year old Uzumaki Naruto had just had a filling breakfast of his favorite dish and had decided to do some training to prepare for his re-admittance into the Academy.

He was now somewhere along the outskirts of the village, walking quietly along the road looking for a quiet place to train when he spotted a barely visible path leading into the forest.

Curious, he followed the small dirt road until he saw a small compound surrounded by a wall of sakura trees. On the entrance stood a red metal torii gate that had a large three-dimensional spiral, like a whirlpool, design carved into it.

The only building he could see in the compound was an old temple that had since fallen into ruin from the wear and tear of time, half of the roof had already caved in; the doors were barely hanging on their hinges. Carved above the entrance to the temple was a giant symbol of a faded red swirl.

Feeling a strange sense of attraction to the place, Naruto decided to check the place out.

After climbing a small stair leading to the temple's entrance, he noticed that there were no windows.

Moving forward, Naruto slightly pushed open the creaking doors and peered through the portal of the dilapidated temple.

'Whoa, this place is really old... dattebayo...' - Naruto thought to himself, - 'and creepily dark as well...' - as he shivered when he felt a faint chill roll down his spine due to the gloomy interior.

'I can't clearly see anything inside...'

Even though it was already approaching noon, the inside of the temple was still quite dim.

'The lights must be broken or something...'

As he continued to survey the barely lit interior, he noticed a small object glinting in the dark somewhere near the rightmost corner of the room.

'Huh? What is that?'

Naruto squinted in the direction of the flash of light until he thought of something, - "I hope it's something valuable... hehehe..." – he muttered to himself, chuckling and grinning greedily.

He threw caution to the wind as he pushed through the doors, slowly fumbling his way towards the glinting object and hoped he wouldn't crash into anything or slip then fall into a gaping hole somewhere in the floor.

He ignored the chilling ambience as he drew closer to the object of his interest and then noticed a narrow beam of light streaming from a pint-sized hole in the ceiling.

'So that's the source of the reflected light.'

A few minutes later, he was finally standing in front his objective.

'Eh? It's just a glass ball?'

He was disappointed to see only a small, silver sphere on a wooden stand.

Slowly reached for the sphere and stared at it as he held it in his hand.

'Hmm… What an odd looking ball.'

Naruto closely examined the sphere for a few minutes, - 'I thought it was something cool but it doesn't seem to be anything special.'

Etched all around the sphere were several swirls, the same designs he had seen earlier at the gate and on top of the temple's entrance.

After a few more minutes, he then decided that he had wasted too much time and turned around to leave.

'I might as well take it with me then ask Jiji about what it is when I get back. It might be some kind of awesome treasure.'

He was about a meter away from the door when suddenly he felt faint as if drained of his energy from doing a strenuous activity.

'Why do am I suddenly feeling so tired?'

Naruto wondered as he continued on his way out of the strange temple.

Little did he know that that day would be the start of the biggest changes of his young life.

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Back on the far away island and after a day of leisurely exploring the desolated village, the redheaded male felt a faint chakra signal.

He immediately sat down and concentrated on tracing the source.

Then, after a few minutes, he smiled as he turned towards the source of the chakra and for a second his sapphire-blue eyes glistened as a single thought came into his mind.

The origin of the faint burst of chakra pointed towards the direction of the Village Hidden by Leaves.

It pointed towards the direction of...

'A survivor.'

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**A/N:** And that's it for the first chapter. I hope I was able to give the necessary details for establishing a prelude for the story. If I didn't, please include what information are missing and what's not supposed to be included.

I've already thought about the succeeding event sequence but if you have anything that you would like to add, please don't hesitate to include them in your reviews.

Pairings will be announced later on.

Since this is my very first fan fiction, constructive criticism/reviews and tips for writing a story very are welcome. I hope that you would be kind enough to leave helpful suggestions and any advice on how to improve my writing skills but please keep in mind while writing your reviews that I will still reserve the option to disregard anything that I deem as unimportant or unnecessary.

_BackStroke_


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